Just prior to ovulation, women experience a short surge where the luteinizing hormone (LH) level rises to a significantly higher level relative to one's baseline, or normal circulating, LH level. As such, ovulation predictor tests are configured for the detection of this LH surge to facilitate the prediction of when a woman will ovulate. Generally, most women will ovulate within 24 to 36 hours after an LH surge is detected. A reliable method of predicting ovulation can determine a woman's fertility period for pregnancy. As such, ovulation predictor kits/devices must provide unambiguous test results (i.e., surge or no surge) to accurately facilitate the prediction of ovulation in a timely manner.
Ovulation predictor kits/devices currently available provide test results that can be difficult to interpret by a user due at least in part to the nature in which these test results are conveyed to the user. That is, ovulation predictor tests generally require the user to compare the resulting color intensities of the test line and reference line. In many instances, these devices are deemed to indicate LH surge when the test line exhibits a color intensity equal to or greater than the color intensity exhibited by the reference line. Accordingly, interpretation of these test results is necessarily subjective. For instance, as a user approaches the time of her LH surge the test results provided by these “color matching/comparing” devices become increasingly vague and subjective since the respective color intensities of the test and reference lines are increasingly similar. As such, the user is left to interpret as to whether the respective color intensities are truly indicative of an LH surge or not. This inherent guesswork can often result in the user missing the detection of her LH surge. The inability to timely identify an LH surge renders pinpointing ovulation undesirably difficult.
As such, there remains a need for a reliable ovulation predictor device that provides test results that can be less subjectively interpreted by a user, particularly by a user in her home.